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Council committee reviews interim bill to increase flexibility for street-level uses downtown, South Lake Union and Uptown
Summary
SDCI and council staff briefed the Land Use Committee on interim legislation (CB 120771) that would temporarily expand allowable uses on class 1 and 2 pedestrian streets in downtown, South Lake Union and Uptown to encourage occupancy of vacant ground-floor spaces. The proposal would last three years; committee members
The Land Use Committee received a staff briefing Monday on Council Bill 120771, an interim ordinance proposed to expand allowable ground-floor and second-floor uses on select pedestrian streets in downtown, South Lake Union and Uptown.
Gordon Clowers of the Seattle Department of Construction and Inspections and Council Central Staff summarized the proposal: the interim allowance would run for three years and apply to class 1 and class 2 pedestrian-designated streets in specified areas. The change aims to reduce long-term vacancies by allowing a broader range of activating uses'including certain non-household sales and services, creative studios, medical and community-services uses, commissary kitchens and some offices and R&D uses at street level'that are not always permitted under existing pedestrian-street rules.
Staff characterized the measure as similar to emergency rules enacted in 2020 when the pandemic shuttered many retail storefronts, but broader and targeted to specific corridors in downtown (including Belltown, the office core and corridors near Westlake), South Lake Union (north of Mercer) and the Uptown urban center (Fifth Avenue North and Mercer Street corridors). The measure would allow new tenant configurations, including some two-story tenant spaces, and would preserve density exemptions for qualifying street-level areas so a newly allowed use would not necessarily push a property over chargeable floor-area limits.
Committee members asked detailed questions about trade-offs and administrative authority. Councilmember Moore and others asked why the city narrowly regulates street-level uses. Staff replied that pedestrian-designation rules historically favored retail and restaurants because those uses generate high pedestrian activity, which supports street life and neighborhood vibrancy. Members expressed support for interim flexibility but raised concerns that a permitted interim use could be grandfathered after the three-year period and that some uses (for example, institutional or R&D uses) might not generate the same pedestrian activation or could remain in place indefinitely.
Members also questioned delegation of decision-making authority to the SDCI director for administratively allowing additional uses and whether certain changes should be subject to appeal rather than a director-level Type I decision. Staff said the bill includes criteria for "activating uses" and that council could consider limiting or excluding particular uses from administrative delegation.
Committee members discussed timing: staff said the city's larger planning work (a supplemental EIS funded during last year's budget) may inform a permanent approach to street-level use rules in future years; that conversation could result in permanent code changes at a later date.
No vote occurred Monday. Chair Solomon indicated the committee will consider the bill at a future meeting and members asked about amendment deadlines before that meeting.
